How-To: Boost Your Web Browsing Performance Like an IT Pro Using DNS

4.) Test the Speed of Your New DNS Server

The Gibson Research Corporation is creating a free DNS benchmarking web application, but unfortunately at the time when this article was written, it wasn’t quite ready for primetime. This tool shows amazing promise and I would suggest checking back at that link often to see the final results.

Until then unfortunately, we’ll have to do this the hard way! Start by downloading the Dig DNS Query Tool. The tool was created by Nicholas Fong, and for those that have been longing to plunge into a DOS box, get ready to get your geek on. Once you have downloaded the .zip file, extract the contents into c:\dig. Before you attempt to run the benchmark tool however, a couple of changes to the programs configuration are required. You can allow us to make these changes for you by downloading a 100kb patch file, or you can make the changes manually. Keep in mind however, that the patch can only be used if you installed the DNS tool in c:\dig, and if Windows is installed in the default directory (c:\windows). If this is not the case, simply follow the steps below.

**SKIP THIS STEP IF YOU APPLIED THE PATCH**

**If you wish to make the changes manually, simply open Notepad and direct it to open c:\dig\resolv.conf. Once you have opened this file, simply delete any visible text, then close and save the file. You now need to manually transfer a copy of the file to c:\”your windows directory”\system32\drivers\etc.**

Running The Benchmark:

Using Windows XP:

Click Start / Run / Then type “cmd” and press Enter

Using Windows Vista / 7

Click Start / then type “cmd”. When you see the cmd.exe icon appear at the top of your search menu, press Ctrl + Alt + Enter to Run As Administrator

You will then be greeted with a command line interface where you can type the commands listed on each line below. Keep in mind you need to press Enter at the end of each line.

cd\dig

patch.bat (only if you installed the patch without making the changes manually)

You can now test out performance by entering known, or unknown domain names. For example:

dig maximumpc.com NS

dig twitter.com NS

dig lolcats.com NS

You will start to notice that if you query a domain that you have visited recently, the IP address may be pulled from cache rather than the DNS servers and won’t give you fair results. You should query domains that you know you’ve never visited to get a clear picture. Just about every single word in the English language has been claimed on “.com”, use your creativity to come up with your own examples, and if that doesn’t work just Google something and note the URL’s on the results.

You can also query a list of top level domain servers.

dig com. NS

dig net. NS

dig us. NS

You can now go back and change your DNS server using steps 2 or 3 until you find the best result. Keep in mind that the best time to really test your new DNS server is during prime surfing hours, this is traditionally in the early evening. You ISP may turn in decent results in off peak hours, but buckle under the weight of its entire subscriber base. The internet is a chaotic place, the more factors you can take into account during your testing, the better. Once you’re pleased with the performance, you can move on to the next stage of your testing, security.

5.) Test the Security of Your New DNS Server

DNS servers have been in the news lately with terrible exploits that can snag even the most experienced power users. A new hack known as Cache Poisoning allows remote users to actually change the IP addresses of certain domains. For example, you could click on your address bar, type in www.bank.com, but instead of heading to your banks website, you are redirected to a phishing site. The URL in your address bar would look normal, but unless you know to check your SSL certificates, you might not be where you think you are!

Thanks again to the tireless efforts of Steve Gibson at GRC Corporation; a free and handy web utility now exists to test your DNS server’s resistance to Cache Poising. Simply scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click the large box near the bottom that says Initiate Standard DNS Spoofability Test. Having problems? Certain routers have been known to crash during the procedure. To identify if this is your problem, run the Crash Test.

If you’re happy with the speed boost, and if the spoofability test hands you back a passing grade, congratulations your off and running!

6.) Stats, Shortcuts, and Content Filtering Using OpenDNS

Any third party can provide DNS service, but what sets OpenDNS apart from the crowd is the services they offer. In addition to being one of the most secure DNS providers, if you take the time to register for a free account, you gain access to their premium features which include:

1.) Stats - If you enable this feature (disabled by default) you can get detailed statistics on your network activity. This can be extremely useful if you manage several machines in an office environment and you need to keep an eye out for slackers. It can also be helpful in a home environment when you want to make sure little Timmy is really reading Wikipedia, and not killing time on Facebook. The OpenDNS privacy statement also explicitly states that under no circumstances will they ever sell your statistical information to third parties.

2.) Shortcuts – Bind words to URL’s. Have you ever wished you could type “max” into your address and be instantly linked to your favorite PC website? That was a rhetorical question, of course you have! Simply think of a word, give OpenDNS the URL and make bookmarks a thing of the past.

3.) Filtering – By clicking the Settings tab in main menu, you will gain access to one of the most powerful features of OpenDNS, content filtering. From here you can customize exactly what users of your network will have access to, by either blocking specific websites, or simply protect yourself by blocking malicious websites. You can choose minimal which will protect you and the users of your network from phishing attacks, all the way up to high which will filter adult, illegal, or any other time wasting websites (except MaximumPC!). For those looking for protection somewhere in-between the two extremes, several other settings can be chosen, or you can create your own rule set by selecting Custom.

Conclusion

Changing your DNS server is a simple and proven way to improve your surfing speed without paying your greedy ISP an extra cent. OpenDNS is a great choice if you’re looking for rock solid performance and excellent security, but for those who care to take the extra time to benchmark and test, you’re sure to find something a bit faster if raw performance is your goal. With 11.9 million choices, how much time you invest in your search is entirely up to you.

seo (not verified)

June 01, 2009 at 3:11am

In general, you can access most consumer routers by opening a new tab in your browser and typing either 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1.
You’ll know this worked correctly when you are prompted for your user
name and password to login. If you lost this information, don’t
despair, just look for any type of reset button on the device itself to
restore it to defaults. Look for a tab named Network or Configuration and look for the section that allows you to enter your DNS. Once done, simply click save and reboot your router.

The DNS benchmarking tool made by Gibson Research Corporation mentioned above is working now. I suggest using it to test your connection.

I use Quest DSL. It tested out to be by far the fastest.

In order to properly test the Quest DNS server I had to enter the IP addresses manually. If you're using a router you will find your actual DNS server there. It should be found under Connection Status.

I entered both the primary and the secondary DNS into the benchmark tool. both of them tested out to be the fastest out of any servers that the tool tests.

I also discovered something. By default Windows is set to automatically obtain a DNS. It picks the router. The router also gets it's DNS automatically. It should look to your ISPs DNS server. This means that every request must be processed by the router. If I cut out the router and enter the Quest DNS servers into Windows manually then I seem to get faster page loads.

The DNS Benchmark showed my router IP as 192.168.0.1. It's marked by a solid gold dot and it's named Home. If your router shows up as being slower than your ISPs DNS servers then you should benifit by entering the IPs for the DNS manually as well.

Just tried it, and it seems to work pretty well. I will have to do some more testing on it, but it reduced my ping a little bit and of course passed all of the security tests. I'll be using OpenDNS on all routers that I set up now.

Overall this works out really well and I'm happily using OpenDNS...but I ran into an issue where I could no longer ping or remote into computers on my LAN. After a bit of research I discovered this is because the names were going out to the DNS server to be resolved instead of staying on my LAN. I don't know exactly why this happens and didn't when I was using my ISP's DNS servers, but if you run into this, it can be fixed (if you're using OpenDNS anyway). You have to go into the VPN exceptions section (can't recall the exact name at the moment) and setup "your domain" as an exception so it'll resolve the name locally. Once you know what's going on, finding your domain is pretty easy - when you do a ping (i.e. ping mycomputer) it'll come back with something like "pinging mycomputer.isp.domain.com" so you just add an exception for "isp.domain.com", wait the three minutes and try again... you may have to also add "domain.com" so just keep going until you get a ping and ip from your LAN.

Hope this saves someone some time as it took me awhile to figure out why my WHS wasn't talking to my computer, etc...

I have been using openDNS for close to a year now and have no problems with it. I started using it after my ISP had a very bad case of fox.com. On any compter or any device that tried to access the internet was redirected to fox.com on about 80% of all pages visited. So i switched to openDNS and have had no issues since. I tried a month or so ago the DNS servers of my ISP again and while alot better I still get the occasional reroute to fox.

searching for recommended DNS and OpenDns. Compare the difference for myself. I am going to be using the router option-question: Since I'm changing the DNS inside my router, will all my other OSes( triple boot WIN 7, XP, Ubuntu), be covered?

OpenDNS saved my sanity. Once upon a time, I was a subscriber to Time Warner Cable for my internet service. I like many others on TWC played online games (including WoW) but during those Dark troublesome days I would log in to my favorite games online and after a few minutes of play I would start getting Ridiculous ping times sometimes in the multi thousand millisecond pings. I reported this to TWC to NC Soft to Blizzard to just about everybody. Did the trace routes troubleshot till my eyes were bloodshot my hair falling out (still is but its slowed considerably since then :D) and my hands were raw and bloody from typing tracert -d login.gameservername.com at a command prompt.

Finally I got fed up to my eyeballs with TWC after having resolved the issue ( a bad actor server in the dallas Fort Worth telco area) and reported same to TWC NOTHING was done to correct it. The Hops on the network all went star for tcp at hop 7 out of 30 and in the multi thousands of ms and TWC had this info and did squat. I switched from TWC to windstream For a while life was good and then all of a sudden I started getting the same kind of behavior from windstream. More sleepless nights troubleshooting. Then I read a forum post on world of warcrafts forums talking about OpenDNS. I went to their site and read up on them. changed the dns entry on my from auto to OpenDNS servers and the problem went away. Immediately. did a tracert out to us.login.worldofwarcraft.com after doing a release renew through ipconfig. No more hop 7 dallas fort worth area hops! I was being routed through Philidelphia to Boston (im on the east coast and the datacenter for one of my realms is in Boston) ping never went above 38-40ms on any hop!!!!! ping time in WoW was down to an acceptable 128-145ms on a busy night and down to 74-75ms on a off peak hour run.

I have also had less intrusion attacks inbound to my router since begining to use OpenDNS for my Domain Name Server needs. KickAss! 9 of 10 +SpeedRacer: Avoids Dallas Fort Worth area att Backbone, Improved speed and ping immediately and immensely, Secure and feature rich client. -SpeedingTicket: sometimes interacts strangely with Kaspersky Anti Virus

Try some alternatives. OpenDNS as we mentioned is fast, but it is also popular. Find yourself another less populated server if raw speed is your goal. You also inspired me to add another few sentences to the end of my benchmarking paragraph. Make sure you are testing your DNS server's during peak hours, typically this is the early evening. Your ISP may give you good results now, but buckle under the weight of their subscriber base. You might also just be lucky enough to have an ISP with excellent DNS server, with all the choices out there maybe your lucky! But you won't know till you try.